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Dance Central
Dance Central is a music rhythm game for the Xbox 360 Kinect that was released on November 2010 in most areas and on June 2011 in Japan. Gameplay Dance Central is a rhythm game where players follow characters' movements in various arenas and earn stars while doing so. On the right side of the characters are flashcards for guidance, displaying the current move that is being done. The judgement of each move done is divided into four critiques: X, Almost, Nice, and Flawless. If a player earns a consecutive amount of Flawlesses, the arena will turn into a peak mode glowing with lights, and it can be maintained with Flawless or Nice critiques. If a player earns a consecutive amount of Xs however, the arena loses vividness and the music gets muffled. This can be changed back to its regular state if a player get a Nice or a Flawless once in its dull state. A total of 5 Stars can be earned per routine, but if a player does very well, they can earn Gold Stars. Earning stars unlocks content for the game. Along with stars, there is a score, which are both displayed by a boombox named Boomy. Boomy also features a little number on it, indicating a score multiplier. Doing moves in succession increases the multiplier, earning more points, but missing a move cause the multiplier to drop from its starting point. Songs are divided into categories, and each song has three difficulty levels: Easy, Medium, and Hard. Only Easy is unlocked in the beginning, and the player earns the other difficulties as they move on. Once they do well, they can also unlock a "No Flashcards" mode that does not display the flashcards on screen. Each song features a Freestyle section that allows players to dance however they desire. When so, a camera takes photos as they are freestyling, and distributes them out before the routine revises, however these have to be earned by obtaining camera icons that appear next to some of the moves. Doing those in succession results in a photo opportunity in Freestyle. These photos can be viewed after the song, but they cannot be saved. The option for photo taking can also be disabled. There are five modes available in Dance Central *'Perform It!': A standard mode where a player can dance to routines in the game. *'Fitness:' A mode that tracks calories burned while playing. It features an indicator for calories and a timer for how long the session has been going when on. *'Dance Battle:' A competitive mode where two players goes head to head for glory. One player goes at a time and the one with the highest score wins. *'Challenge:' After getting 4 stars on each song in a category, a challenge is unlocked. The challenge is a mix of all of the songs in that category as one. A Grand Finale Challenge is also available, but the player has to get 4 stars in each challenge in order to unlock that one. *'Break It Down:' A training mode where the player can learn the moves or assist in moves they are having difficulties with. The mode cuts the routines into sections and goes through each step individually. When the player passes all the moves in the section, a recap is performed, and the process repeats until the end. There is also an option to slow down the moves, giving more analyzation if need be. There is also a place where players can look at statistics. They range from the amount of time spent on the game to number of calories burned, and each statistic features a title that changes depending on the amount spent on the statistic, although they are there just for show. An "Options" section is also present, allowing the player to adjust settings if need be. Characters Dance Central features ten different characters. Eight of them are unlocked from the start while two are unlocked through certain achievements. Each character, with the exception of one, has a main outfit and an alternate outfit, and the alternate outfit can be unlocked by earning 25 stars with that dancer, aside from Eliot's whose alternate outfit is unlocked by reaching the "Living Legend" rank. Eliot can be attained after reaching the "Living Legend" rank or by earning 4 stars on the Grand Finale Challenge on any difficulty. Doing it by the former unlocks him with both outfits available while doing it by the latter only unlocks him with his main outfit available. Ttiw Tolrep can be attained after entering "Left, Up, X, Up, Right, Y" at the title screen using the Xbox 360 Controller. Venues The game features six venues for the player to dance in. Two are available from the start while the rest have to be unlocked in order to play in them. Venues can be changed before the player starts a routine, aside from the Grand Finale Challenge where it is initally defaulted with Dr. Tan's Estate, but can eventually be changed once the player passes the challenge. Ranks The game features a ranking system that gives the player a title. They are merely there just for display, but they do start from the bottom and go up as the player earns stars. There are 20 ranks in the game. Story While there is no Story mode in the game, there are two cutscenes that exist within the game implying a story. A club is being promoted by Mo, spreading all over the area and getting multiple characters' attention. As such, they attend to go to the club to party. When done promoting, Mo goes to a phone booth, picks up the phone, and hears a representation for the club on the other line. After putting it back, the platform underneath him lowers down, taking him to the club. The club ends up being revealed as Dr. Tan's Estate, and while most of the characters who attended are having fun, Oblio is sitting against a wall in dismay. He eventually leaves the club and rides away on his motorcycle, but as he is doing so, the player sees the scene being rewound. It then shows the scene on one of many screens that are being monitored by Dr. Tan. Intrigued by what he is seeing, he closes the rest of the screens, smirks, and laughs hysterically. Songs The game features 32 songs for the player to dance to. Each song is ranked under a certain category: Warm Up, Simple, Moderate, Tough, Legit, Hardcore, and Off The Hook. Each song also has a default dancer associated with it, although they can be changed beforehand. There are three difficulties available for each song: Easy, Medium, and Hard, but only Easy is available from the beginning. Medium is unlocked once the player either earns at least 3 stars on Easy or passes 50% of the routine in Break It Down on Medium or Hard, and Hard is unlocked once the player either earns at least 3 stars on Medium or passes 50% of the routine in Break It Down on Hard. Each song has a No Flashcards mode available in which the flashcards do not pop up on the screen, but it has to be unlocked in order to enable it. The mode is unlocked in separate stages for each song, specifically when the player earns at least 5 stars under each difficulty (i.e. earning at least 5 stars on Easy in a song will only unlock the mode undernath Easy for that song). Challenges Challenges are a combination of songs meshed together as one. They are unlocked once the player earns at least 4 stars on each song used in the challenge, aside from the Grand Finale Challenge where it is the same premise, but with challenges. The player can bypass unlocking the difficulties one by one for the Challenges by earning the minimum amount of stars needed for each song (Challenges for the Grand Finale Challenge) at the same difficulty rather than earning at least 3 stars on the challenge from the previous difficulty once the challenge is available. No Flashcards mode is also available as an unlockable, and the same rules apply when unlocking them. Unlike the songs, there is no Break It Down mode available for Challenges. The Grand Finale Challenge initially does not allow the player to change the default dancer, but once they clear it, they can change it. Additionally, Eliot, Dr. Tan's Estate, and a gold version of Boomy are unlocked through the Grand Finale Challenge once cleared. Downloadable Content Dance Central has additional content they can purchase for the game. Like the on-disc songs, they follow the same format in playing them. Achievements There are 50 achievements available for Dance Central. They add up to 1000 XP for a player's Xbox 360 gamertag. Reception The scores and reviews for Dance Central are mostly positive. Garnering a score of 82 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 63 reviews, 8/10 from IGN and a rating of 8.5/10 from GameSpot. http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/dance-central Dance Central was considered as by far the best Xbox 360 Kinect game since its release. Trivia *Each character, aside from Eliot and Ttiw Tolrep, is assigned four on-disc songs in the game *Including DLC and excluding the challenges **Angel, Miss Aubrey, and Mo are given the least with 7 **Emilia and Oblio are given the most with 9. **Mo gets the "easiest" and "hardest" songs in the game (Poker Face and The Way I Are) *Angel is the only character to not be assigned a Challenge *This is the only game in the series that uses the category system where DLC for the Warm Up category exists *The statistics are determined through the "Excessive Live Information Overload Tracker". This device ends up being known to the public as Eliot, and the name Eliot represents an acronym for the phrase above. *Four cheat codes are made in this game, which can be put in at the title screen using the Xbox 360 Controller **"Left, Up, X, Up, Right, Y" - Unlocks Ttiw Tolrep (Achievements are disabled with this cheat is activated) **"B, Left, Up, Right, Right, Y" - Unlocks "Street Legal", a variation of Oblio's "Dystopia" outfit **"B, Up, Down, Down, Y" - Unlocks "Mo'riginal", a variation of Mo's "B-Boy" outfit **"B, Up, B, B, Left, Y" - Unlocks everything (Autosaves and Achievements are disabled when this cheat is activated) ***All of these are temporary; if the player changes the character and/or resets the game, the player has to put them again at the title screen to have access to them. ***They codes, when spelled out, are words ****LUXURY for Ttiw Tolrep ****BLURRY for "Street Legal" ****BUDDY for "Mo'riginal" ****BUBBLY for unlocking everything ***The code for Ttiw Tolrep is hinted in the message that appears when Dr. Tan's Estate is locked for play. (A glamorous icon such as yourself requires the ultimate luxury...) Gallery References 1. http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/dance-central Category:Games